Environmentalists, E. coli sufferers, the Skinny Bitches--the list of beef haters grows longer every day. But let's face it: For a lot of people, biting into a thick, juicy steak ranks up there with make-up sex and cocktails on the company's dime as one of those priceless MasterCard moments. So what's a carnivore with a conscience to do? Instead of focusing on what you're eating, how about taking a look at what your prime rib had for lunch last week? Research is showing that beef from grass-fed cattle is leaner, healthier, and less costly to the planet--and may even be safer to eat than the heifers you're chewing on now.

Omega Moos

Most U.S. raised bovines feast on a grain mix made up mainly of cheap corn. Just like humans on a high-carb diet, grain-fed cows fatten up fast. This gives ranchers a quick, inexpensive turnaround from the feedlot to your supermarket's meat department. But a number of retro ranchers are feeding their herds the way they all did 50 or so years ago: letting them roam the fields to graze at will. They're switching to grass for a variety of reasons, including a desire to improve their animals' quality of life.

It just so happens that what makes herds happy also makes their meat healthier. Beef from grass-fed meat (the industry lingo is "grass-fed beef") packs up to a third less fat per serving. The fat it does have boasts more benefits: A three-ounce serving contains 35 milligrams of the heart- and brain-protecting omega-3s EPA and DHA, compared with only 18 milligrams for the same serving of meat from grain-fed stock. Steers that munch on pasture also have twice the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) per serving (26 milligrams, compared with 13 milligrams in grain-fed). According to Kate Clancy, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, early research in rats has linked higher CLA levels with easier weight loss and a reduced risk of heart disease as well as certain types of cancer.

Another possible health perk: fewer bouts of food sickness. The Journal of Dairy Science has reported that levels of E. coli are usually higher in grain-fed cattle. The leading theory, says David Pimentel, Ph.D., professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University, is that grain creates an environment in a steer's stomachs (they have four of them, remember?) that's more hospitable to the nasty bug, adding to the likelihood that the meat of a grain-fed animal will be contaminated with E. coli during processing.